1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a display screen operation device which is applied to various kinds of devices, such as a car navigation device and an audio device of a vehicle, in which various kinds of operations are executed under confirmation of a display screen as a monitor.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, there has been a vehicle which is provided with a monitor having a monitoring display screen on an instrument panel or in a housing section formed in the instrument panel of the vehicle, and in which, for example, a map display screen and the like is displayed on the monitoring display screen of the car navigation device.
Moreover, since various kinds of devices such as an audio device and an air-conditioning device as well as the above-described car navigation device are installed on the vehicle, a configuration is also being considered, for example, in which a virtual control panel comprising icons, which correspond to each of various kinds of devices, and the like is displayed on the display screen of the monitor, a display screen of the monitor is switched to a virtual control panel corresponding to a desired device, using a controller, and a pointer or the like displayed on the display screen of the monitor is moved onto an icon, which corresponds to the contents of a desired control or operation, using the controller, to select the icon in order to execute the desired control or operation.
In such a configuration, there is an advantage that one controller can operate and control various kinds of devices even when the number of devices installed in the vehicle is increased.
On the other hand, controllers used for the above devices include one having a configuration in which a touch panel is provided in a part of the main body of the controller.
That is, according to the configuration, a coordinate position on the touch panel of the controller is set in correspondence to a coordinate position on the display screen of the monitor to move a finger and the like on the touch panel and to move a pointer displayed on the display screen of the monitor.
Here, when the above-described controller is operated, for example, in a moving vehicle, a pointer is sometimes slightly moved on the display screen of the monitor, following the movement of a finger on the touch panel due to vibration of the vehicle. As a result, for example, the following situations occur: the pointer is located on an icon which is not intended to be selected, and the icon is put into a selected state (for example, the color of the icon is changed); and the pointer frequently moves among a plurality of icons in a short time, and a plurality of icons are alternately put into the selected state in a short time.
In order to prevent the above disadvantages, a configuration (refer to Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (JP-A) No. 11-127399 as one example) has been considered in which a gray zone is set between adjoining icons, and the existing selected state of an icon is not released (not cancelled) when the pointer is located within a predetermined range even if the pointer deviates from the icon.
However, when the gray zone is set as described above, there occurs a phenomenon that the selected state is maintained though a finger position on the touch panel is greatly away from the selected icon. Since such a phenomenon causes an unnatural feeling that operational feeling on the touch panel does not correspond to the state of the display screen of the monitor, there is much room for improvement from the viewpoint of the operability.
Especially, for example, when vibration in the vehicle is extremely slight, for example, when the vehicle is stopped, and movement of a finger on the touch panel is basically small, the above described problems are much less liable to occur, but, instead, the above described unnatural feeling becomes large.